by Patrick Zier | Jul 26, 2026 |
(This is the first of a three part series on Florida’s Big Three in college football. Today, Florida)
He was not Florida’s first choice. Than would be Lane Kiffin, who snubbed the Gators for LSU. So Jon Sumrall, the highly successful coach at first Troy and then Tulane, a team he took to the College Football Playoff, has had to sell himself. To the players. To the donors. To the fans.
He has been trying to convince everyone in Gator Nation that he fits, that despite the fact he comes from a Group of Six program and has very limited experience at a Power Four conference level and none as a head coach, he can pull this off.
That despite the fact that he is replacing another Group of Six coach, Billy Napier, who came before him, tried to lead the Gators out of the swamp and instead drowned in it.
So, if some who follow the team in Gainesville are a bit uneasy, you can understand why. Florida is not just any Power Four program. It is expected to be elite. If you are going to succeed here, you need to fill the footsteps of Steve Spurrier, Urban Meyer. Anything less is unacceptable.
Sumrall is spending a lot of time trying to convince people he understands.
The resources are there, he says. The talent is there, as well as the commitment of those involved with the program, from top to bottom, he says.
All that is needed is somebody to put it all together, and he is that somebody. “I want everybody in our building to have an appreciation for the privileges that we’re afforded each and every day,” Sumrall declared at the recent SEC media days.
“When I interviewed for this job one of the questions the committee had for me was ‘Coach, what do you view as our negatives at the University of Florida?’ I said the biggest one I see is we haven’t been winning enough.
“At the places I’ve coached; look, I’ve got a full time nutritionist now. I didn’t have that at Troy. I’ve got a staff of nutritionists. Like there are so many great resources we have,” Sumrall said.
“Every time you walk into a place that’s different, the most important thing you do as a new head coach is you listen to maybe what’s gone right and you listen to what’s gone wrong, and you try and identify where you have to recalibrate. Try to get the right people in your building. Maybe it’s okay if some people leave.
“I’m just trying to inject an attitude we’re going to attack every day with enthusiasm,” Sumrall continued. “I may have some bad moments, I don’t have bad days. I got life pretty good.
“So for me, I think you have to have a great attitude in what you do. I define attitude as demeanor, drive and desire. Demeanor is your body language. Drive and desire is the mindset That you never arrive, you can always get better.
“I am a firm believer that the only disability in life is a bad attitude,” Sumrall commented. “I ain’t going to have a bad attitude. When things go bad I am still going to have a positive attitude.
“That’s not purple skies and butterflies. We are going to have some moments that don’t go our way. There will be adversity, but when adversity hits, I don’t change.
“You know things are going to go bad. When things go bad, how do you respond? You better respond with the right attitude. I want everybody in our building to be filled with urgency and excitement and passion about what they do,” Sumrall emphasized.
Sumrall’s effusive praise of Florida football and the program’s potential has gotten him some buy in. He has a believer in Nick Saban, who, even in retirement, towers above the SEC. His word is regarded as gospel by many.
“I think Jon Sumrall is very, very impressive,” Saban said on the SEC Network. “That guy has the right stuff. He talks about the right things, in terms on intangibles, to build a program and a culture that’s going to sustain itself. Florida, I think, is a sleeping giant,” Saban added.
And there are many who echo Saban, calling Sumrall a breath of fresh air and an inspiration to those around him. So he’s made his point, calmed the masses. Now all he has to do is turn words into wins.
(Next: Miami)
by Patrick Zier | Jul 22, 2026 |
Joey Logano crushed the competition at North Wilkesboro Sunday, leading 323 of the 450 laps on his way to winning the race. For Ford though, the question is whether this is an indication of things to come or a one-off. I mean, has Ford finally figured out the Next Gen car or not?
Because only Ryan Blaney has shown any real competitiveness in a Ford over the last two years. Prior to Sunday and dating back to May 4th, 2025, a span of 45 races, Ford had won six times, all by Blaney. So we’ll see.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Sunday’s race was the performance of Shane van Gisbergen, the 37-year-old New Zealander who has been tearing it up on road courses and flailing frantically everywhere else.
At a point in his life when most Cup drivers have established who they are and trying to maintain as they approach the end of their careers, van Gisbergen is attempting to learn how to drive on ovals.
And Sunday was his best effort yet. Driving for Trackhouse, he piloted his Chevy to a fifth-place finish, the first time in his short NASCAR career he has ever been in the top five on an oval.
He also led 49 laps, the most ever in a single race on an oval. Prior to the North Wilkesboro race, he had only led 28 laps total on oval tracks not counting superspeedways.
“What the (expletive) do I do now?” van Gisbergen joked on his radio after passing Denny Hamlin for first place according to NASCAR.com’s website. “I was just having fun,” he commented after the race. “It’s pretty cool to get up front and then be able to pass for the lead genuinely. We just got to enjoy ourselves.”
That’s a change from the superspeedways (Atlanta, Daytona and Talladega), where typically the cars run in long lines and gain positions with faster pit stops or when one line breaks up and another forms.
Running up front is very different from running in the back, where he is usually stuck, van Gisbergen said. “It’s just calmer when you get up there,” he remarked. “Everyone’s really respectful.”
Interestingly, Legacy Motor Club’s Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek, also used to being backpackers, made the same kind of comments after they finished sixth and fourth, respectively, at Pocono recently.
“It was just a real solid day,” Stephen Doran, van Gisbergen’s crew chief, said according to NASCAR.com’s website. “You speak about the race yesterday (the truck race Saturday), I feel that helped him a ton.
“He just learned the track. He used some of the lines he figured out yesterday in the truck, so thanks to Spire (van Gisbergen drove for Spire Motorsports Saturday) for letting him do that.
“I feel like it benefits us a ton at these places, so the more of those we can do, the better,” Doran said. “He’s just got to figure out how to make speed, and that just puts him a step ahead when we get to our stuff (Cup racing) if he has laps in a truck or an O’Reilly car.”
One of the things holding van Gisbergen back on the ovals is the fact that Trackhouse’s cars are not good enough to compete with those built by the elite teams, or even teams like Michael Jordan and Hamlin’s 23XI.
Because he is such a talented driver, van Gisbergen can make up for that on road courses, but competing on ovals is another matter entirely.
The falloff by Trackhouse, once considered a rising team in Chevy’s hierarchy, has been dramatic, as the Old Guy Sport competition index demonstrates.
In 2024, with only two cars, Trackhouse’s Ross Chastain won a race at Kansas and had 183 points, 13th best on the OGS competition index. His teammate, Daniel Suarez, scored 67 points.
The next year, 2025, Chastain won again, this time at Charlotte, but his point total dipped to 124 points. Suarez had just 43 and was released when the season ended. But van Gisbergen, added as a third driver, had five road course wins good for 368 points.
This year, with Chevy’s redesigned body, Trackhouse is really struggling although van Gisbergen continues to get better. So far, after 17 races, he has 15 points on short tracks and 12 on the intermediates plus two wins and 196 points on road courses, a total of 223.
That is in stark contrast to Chastain, with just four points, and Connor Zilsch, Suarez’s replacement, who has only five.
Clearly, van Gisbergen is running better than anybody could expect given the quality of the cars he has to compete in. What he might be capable of in a Hendrick Chevy would be interesting to see, now that he is showing signs of being able to run decently on ovals.
“We have fun with all of it,” Doran remarked. “We try to stay light. There’s a lot of inside jokes going on during the race between him, myself, Josh Williams (van Gisbergen’s spotter).
“That’s why we all do this,” Doran continued, “to have fun, win races. So it’s fun when we can run up front like that.” And the more fun they have, the less fun it’s going to be for everybody else.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at Indianapolis: 1-Denny Hamlin, 2-Christopher Bell, 3-Kyle Larson. Last year’s winner at Indianapolis: Bubba Wallace. Top five at Indianapolis last year: 1-Wallace, 2-Larson, 3-Hamlin, 4-Ryan Preece, 5-Brad Keselowski.
Last week’s Old Guy Sport North Wilkesboro picks: 1-Ryan Blaney, 2-Ty Gibbs, 3-Larson. North Wilkesboro winner: Joey Logano. OGS season record after 17 races: 9-8.
OGS competition index top 10 after 17 races: 1-Hamlin 522 points, 2-Tyler Reddick 343, 3-Bell 273, 4-Larson 270, 5-Gibbs 232, Chase Briscoe 232, 7-Shane van Gisbergen 223, 8-Chase Elliott 181, 9-Blaney 157, 10-Logano 117.
OGS competition index top 10 on intermediate tracks (tracks most similar to Indianapolis): 1-Hamlin 406, 2-Reddick 232, 3-Bell 172, 4-Larson 129, 5-Briscoe 127, 6-Elliott 120, 7-William Byron 99, 8-Brad Keselowski 63, 9-Daniel Suarez 51, 10-Wallace 48.
by Patrick Zier | Jul 18, 2026 |
So, has Ford finally found a way to win? Well, we can’t really say that yet. What we know is this: It’s been over a year since anyone in a Ford other than Ryan Blaney has won any kind of a race on any kind of a track.
Blaney won last Sunday at Atlanta, a superspeedway, and he also won earlier this year at Phoenix, and Ford’s last win before that was at another superspeedway, Daytona, in August of 2025, also by Blaney. So, if you’re keeping score, it’s Blaney three, everybody else in a Ford, zero.
In other words, don’t start jumping up and down yet. On the Ford side, as a driver, Blaney is in a class by himself. Nobody else at Ford seems to have figured out how to drive the Next Gen car, and it’s getting worse, not better.
Over the last three years, Ford and its top team, Penske Motorsports, have been in a downward spiral – except for Blaney. In 2024, Ford looked like it might by getting a grip on things.
As usual, Blaney was the leader. Not counting superspeedways, which don’t count because luck and not performance pretty much determine who does well and who doesn’t, Blaney had three wins and 10 top fives.
The other three Penske drivers (the Wood brothers team is included because they get their cars from Penske) Joey Logano, Austin Cindric and Harrison Burton, combined for 11 top fives and four wins.
And then, just when it was looking good, it all started to fall apart. In 2025, Blaney had 13 top fives and three wins. The rest of Penske could only manage 11 top fives and two wins.
This year, it’s worse. Much worse. Blaney has three top fives and one win. The rest of Penske? Just two top fives. So what’s happened? Well, as has been pointed out before, the new aero paradigm in NASCAR relies mostly on generating downforce by controlling air flow under the car, and except for Blaney, Penske might be having some issues there.
Whatever it is, Penske’s pathetic performance – it doesn’t even qualify as an elite team anymore – shows up sharply in the Old Guy Sport competition index.
In the 16 races so far (remember, the OGS competition index doesn’t include superspeedways), Blaney has 157 points, ninth overall but light years behind the top four, which include three Toyotas – Denny Hamlin, 482 points; Tyler Reddick, 343, and Christopher Bell, 274, plus Chevy’s Kyle Larson, 270.
The other Penske drivers? Logano has a sickly 42 points, Cindric 13 and the Wood brothers entry, Josh Berry, none.
Blaney’s ability to separate himself from the rest of the Fords is evident when you look at the OGS competition index over the last three years. In 2024, Blaney had 392 points, the rest of Penske 353. In 2025, Blaney pulled farther ahead with 516 points compared to 272 for the other Penske drivers, and he is widening the gap again this year.
“I have a great group around me and (crew chief) Jonathan Hassler is unbelievable,” Blaney said after the Atlanta win according to NASCAR’s website. “I’m really fortunate I get to work with him.
“Then everybody else on this 12 team, engineers, mechanics, truck driver, pit crew, they do an amazing job,” Blaney continued. “Their attitude is always incredibly positive no matter how it’s going. They always have confidence that they can show up at any racetrack and win.
“It’s just a neat group to be around,” Blaney said. “I’m fortunate that most of us have been together for many years honestly. I think Johnathan is the number one. It’s fun to drive his race cars and work through things with him when we feel like we need to get better, figure out where do we need to get better.”
The question remains, though. If Blaney can do this, and he’s proven he can, why can’t drivers on the same team emulate him? What’s going on here? Well, the answer may be a simple one.
“In my mind, he’s the best in the garage,” Hassler commented. “I’m proud to have the opportunity to work with him.” Blaney may not be the best in the garage, but he’s close. And at Ford? Well, he’s by far the best they’ve got. And that’s not close.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at North Wilkesboro: 1-Ryan Blaney, 2-Ty Gibbs, 3-Kyle Larson. Last year’s winner at North Wilkesboro: No race.
Last week’s Old Guy Sport picks for Atlanta: No picks, OGS does not pick winners in superspeedway races. OGS season record: 9-7.
OGS competition index top 10 after 16 races: 1-Denny Hamlin 482 points, 2-Tyler Reddick 343, 3-Christopher Bell 273, 4-Larson 270, 5-Shane van Gisbergen 208, 6-Gibbs 207, 7-Chase Briscoe 201, 8-Chase Elliott 181, 9-Blaney 157, 10-William Byron 111.
OGS competition index top 10 on short tracks (tracks most similar to North Wilkesboro): 1-Blaney 112 points, 2-Gibbs 91, 3-Larson 83, 4-Hamlin 76, 5-Bell 61, Elliott 61, 7-Joey Logano 41, 8-Reddick 20, 9-Byron 11, 10-Briscoe 10.
